The Core of the Dungeon

"I believe I understand your anger towards me. I hope that you won't kill us both out of spite, though I can't really stop you if you really wanted to." Her voice carried pity and resignation, the combination aggravating him slightly. She expected him to self destruct because of his past behavior.

"You do not need to worry, I would not throw my life away so quickly. Not until I have hunted the demons who killed my parents." He felt the power inside of him resonate with his words, and the influence of the core seemed to pulse in agreement. "While I may be angry with how I got here, the power you grant me will give me a chance to avenge them. If you hadn't done what you did, I would have simply died to your dungeon. In the end you saved my life, and the price simply means I cannot return to my old one."

The core's influence expanded hesitantly in his mind, but it did not attempt to persuade him. It felt like an animal opening up after being trapped in a corner, and it made him realize that he held another sentient creature's life in his hands. It was a concept that, in the past, had always seemed like an expectation. As a warrior he would be expected to kill both demon's and warring faction members. The thought of being able to kill a thinking capable creature, even if it was demonic in its nature felt off though. The core in his chest might not have been human, but he could feel what it felt on a deep level. It may have a foreign mind, it may have a foreign body, but in the end it had chosen to save him. Where would his honor be if he repayed that in blood.

It was at this point it dawned on him that there was no doorway for him to even leave through in the first place. "Uh, I've only just realized that there is no way out of this room. At least not one I can see." He wasn't sure how dungeons worked their magic, but he imagined that the core in his chest knew what it was doing. "Is there some button I need to press?"

The once somber voice of the dungeon core immediately regained its bubbly nature, "Well its actually simpler than that. Since I am a dungeon core, I can control my dungeon's layout." The simplicity of it left him stunned. She could still influence her dungeon? As if to demonstrate her capability, stone began to dissipate into dark mist before revealing a hallway into another room.

"If you can still manipulate the dungeon, than it would probably be better if we didn't leave." His mind was whirring through the possibilities that a dungeon offered him. "With this, I could continue to grow until I was the strongest person in my clan. Then I wouldn't have to worry about them trying to kill me because I could defend myself!"

He felt defeat flash through his core's influence, "That would mean not exploring, which is the only reason I did what I did remember? If I wanted to spend forever in here I would have just eaten you like I do everyone else." He could almost feel her pouting as she spoke. It was odd, but in a way it felt natural.

As much as he wanted to argue the downsides of leaving, her words carried merit. She had saved him so in a way he owed her, even if her goals were selfish. "I think leaving right away would simply get us killed. I don't know how to use this power effectively, if at all. I barely understand the implications of a dungeon core fusing with a person in the first place. We should get a handle on what we are capable of before going out into the world."

"Hrmph," he felt her thinking, and a strike of annoyance flared before she finally agreed. "Fine, but once we figure out what we can do I expect us to explore a whole bunch of things." Kantan could feel the stubbornness in her words backed by the emotions of her mind.

"Deal." He began to walk through the hallway as he thought. "Once I am all healed up, we can run some tests. Do dungeons have soul ranks? If so what rank were you when you replaced my core?" Thoughts of ascending to a high rank immediately after getting a hold of Chi jumped to the forefront of his mind. His excitement was tempered almost as soon as they began to run wild.

"I was an Emerald Soul Dungeon, though now that I have inhabited a body my powers have weakened to what your physical form is able to handle."

An Emerald Soul! That was high enough to lay waste to kings if he could access her full power. "I figured that something like this might happen, so I transferred most of my power into the physicality of the dungeon. Combined we are at the peak of the basic Soul rank based on our chi density." Kantan contemplated her words, realizing that he was the limiting factor.

"If I understand correctly, I can only hold so much power currently. You lowered the amount of Chi you had in reserve to the point my body could handle, correct?" A mental nod from her influence led him to continue. "If I were to break through into the Stone Soul would I be at the peak of that rank as well?"

She took a few moments to think about the possibility, and Kantan used that time to analyze the next room. It was a simple cylinder with three other branching hallways lining the walls. A small Obelisk sat in the center of the room with a perfectly round bowl atop it. Black crystals grew downwards from the high ceiling, starting from a wide base and ending with a point right above the bowl. As he watched, a small drop of black liquid fell atop a fist sized multifaceted gem within the bowl. Instead of running off the side of the gem, it was instead absorbed. A soft darkness permeated the area around the ceiling crystal and the gem. He recognized that something about his vision had changed, as the darkness seemed to have a magical effect to it. He could tell through his Chi that without his transition that seeing through the cloud would have been impossible before hand.

"What is this?" Even as he asked he could feel the dark haze resonate with the power that surged through his Chi channels. It called to him, and on instinct he could feel a sort of spiritual awareness shift toward the gem, a heavy pressure exerting onto his shoulders. Gravity felt like it had shifted, the force of the ambient essence weighing down on him noticeably.

"This is my newest creation, well aside from you of course." He felt glory from her words, as if it had been a serious challenge to create the powerful object. "Using ambient collection circuits and Onyx crystals, I am able to funnel and condense the essence within my dungeon into that storage core. That powers a runic network that manipulates the dungeon in my absence."

Kantan stopped in place, the load of information overwhelming him for a moment. "Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't know that you could create runes as a dungeon. Also, why do you need this runic network to run the dungeon if you can still control it?" He analyzed the obelisk in the center of the room, searching for the runes but the face was simple grey stone. "Why can't I see the runes?"

"Whoa there, if you give me a moment I'll explain. Firstly, of course I can make runes. How else would traps work? You don't think I manually trigger all of the traps in this place do you? That would be incredibly tedious and as an avid rune crafter I don't have the time for that." Kantan nodded along to her words, feeling slightly sheepish. "Secondly, my control over the dungeon is less so now that I have bonded with your core. All of the essence around us is still mine, for now. Once this network gets diluted with enough foreign chi I will lose control over it. As long as were in the dungeon though, I will slowly be able to regain control."

"So as long as there is enough of our chi in the dungeon, you'll maintain control. Once we leave though, peoples usage and filtering of chi in here will dilute your essence signature. If we aren't here to replace it, than you can't manipulate the ambient essence." He felt affirmation from her influence, prompting him to speak again. "That still doesn't explain why I can't see the runes."

"That is simple, all of the runes are within the stone, instead of on the surface. The more exposed the network is the more likely someone is to break or damage it. Should the network break in my absence, or while I don't have enough influence, the dungeon will stop working completely." She lent mental weight to her last words, "If the dungeon stops working completely, than it would be almost impossible for us to generate enough chi to start it up again."